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June 12, 2007

NEWS: FDA lab set to close

Legislators want the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to save its lab in Lenexa, Kan. from closing.

The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) says that more than 50 highly trained scientists and researchers would lose their jobs when the Lenexa facility shuts its doors.

“That is hundreds of years of professional scientific expertise effectively flushed down the drain,” saidColleen Kelley, NTEU president.Kelley also said those experts would most likely find jobs in the private sector rather than transfer to another FDA lab in another state. Such a lost could affect national security.

“The Lenexa lab primarily serves the populations of Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and Nebraska, and is within a day’s drive of four more states,” Kelley explained. “Millions of people could see their health jeopardized if the FDA implements this shortsighted plan.”

“With the serious food-related illness issues that have arisen in the past – pet food, peanut butter, spinach, to name a few – the FDA needs to bolster its resources, not deplete them,” Kelley said. “The FDA has never made the case that closing any of its labs will better protect the public’s health. In fact, closing labs like Lenexa will only weaken the agency’s ability to respond to future food-borne emergencies.”

According to the FDA, the Lenexa lab houses the FDA’s Total Diet and Pesticide Research Center. The center conducts research and product analysis on “a wide variety of food and chemicals, including pharmaceutical products, pet food and more than 300 pesticide residues.”

Miguel M. Morales

Miguel grew up in Texas working as a migrant and seasonal farmworker. He is a Lambda Literary Fellow, a member of the Macondo Writers Workshop, and a VONA/Voices alum. Miguel also serves as president of the Latino Writers Collective.